.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called the government. They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

This cry that Dubya is taking our freedom away and no one is crying out, sounds hollow to me. People are crying out and taking action. What do you call Occupy Wall Street? People are also taking action at the voting booth. How do you think Obama got elected?

What do you call Occupy Wall Street? People are also taking action at the voting booth. How do you think Obama got elected?

the occupy people are the great unwashed who are generally discontent and want "stuff" for free. how do i think obama got elected? a huge number of uninformed people who usually would not have bothered to vote, voted. along with them, the muddy middle who stand for nothing but think the word "change" has some deep and mystical meaning.

the path forward is a good house cleaning and electing the most conservative people we can find to congress.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called the government. They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

As said about spending, the answer to a problem isn't to continue the problem in larger volume.

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"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

My concern is the takeover of freedom's we never even thought about. Control over our food? Time to play doomsday and stock up, me thinks we have a civil war in the offing if things don't improve soon.

and yet, this was done during the depression and ww2. food was rationed. of course, we were encouraged to grow our own, but if you were a farmer the government was controlling your product.

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The Patriot Act was before his time.

didn't start there either. these things often come out of war. the Sedition act, throwing Japanese in internment camps, etc. what's different about the Patriot Act is that almost every single thing that was in it, was already available to law enforcement, particularly the DEA. updated were the things that had to do with surveillance and new tech, but other than that, most of it was in use and this just pulled it together.that's why most of it survived court challenge.

here's another difference: legislation can be challenged in court. the things the alphabet agencies do outside legislation? not so much. they are pretty much unaccountable and untouchable.

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called the government. They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....